The Ramsey Show - App - Millionaires Play Both Offense and Defense With Their Money (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 21, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey. This is your show. Thank you for being with us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Ethan is with us in Seattle. Hey, Ethan, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?
Starting point is 00:01:01 So, I am the type of person who isn't a morning person and tends to sleep in until the last minute before I have to head to work. I'm trying to change that to better myself and my family and my future, and was hoping you might have some tips on how to become a morning person and make my mornings productive. How old are you? 27. Cool. What do you do for a living?
Starting point is 00:01:25 I am a local delivery driver. I sell my truck for Old Dominion Freelance. Okay, good. All right. Yeah, good to be alert if you're going to be at the helm of a big rig, huh? Yeah. Well, I mean, I just have a tendency to where I sleep in and leave the house before my family gets up. And then only have about an hour at home to spend with the family. So instead of doing stuff after I get home from work, I want to be able to get some stuff done and, you know, be productive in the morning before I leave the work and having a hard
Starting point is 00:01:58 time and struggling with that. I got you. What is it you're wanting to do in the mornings that you're not doing? Um, maybe get some light reading in um maybe a workout here and there and pretty much just get a early jump to my day to be honest okay cool well i i have a friend of mine that's uh um in his 70s and when i was um so he's 20 something years older than me obviously and i actually worked for him for a short period of time. And he is one of the most renowned scholars I have ever met on the book of Proverbs.
Starting point is 00:02:32 And for many years, he got up at 4 o'clock in the morning. He may still, for all I know. He was really, really intense about studying the book of Proverbs and studying the Bible and understanding Hebrew, the Greek, and so forth and all the different things. And that was his goal. He was very, very intense about it. And it was quite amazing, his knowledge of it. And so I was kind of asking him the same question.
Starting point is 00:02:57 I'm like, how do you get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and do that? I mean, it's kind of like, wow, you know what I'm saying? Right, yeah. you know what he told me i go to bed early i thought wow that's insightful you know and so i i am i am a my motor runs beautifully still to this day at midnight uh now this i'm getting older and so i'm tired at midnight but uh i'm a night person too and sometimes you're just the way your body works your brain works or whatever your spirit some people are night people some people are morning people but i get up at either 4 45 or 5 15 almost every morning, somewhere around there.
Starting point is 00:03:45 And I have for probably 20 years, 25 years. And all I did was after talking to that one guy, I just said, kind of like you, I thought, there's some stuff I want to get done in the morning. I got to get started earlier. And the only way to do it is I do need eight hours of sleep. I really do. And so I just go to bed earlier because it's just worth it to me and so yeah i'm kind of old man you know my grandpa when he always got up before o'clock
Starting point is 00:04:10 in the morning he was a country guy and uh he went to work at 6 a.m and he would get up 4 30 or something like that and so you know if it was an 8 39 o'clock and there were still people at the house he would stand up and say honey we're gonna have to go to bed so these people can go home i've heard him say it but and he would get up and leave and go to bed and the rest of us would be sitting there for another hour and so i haven't done that yet i hadn't quite got that old man yet but i may at some point i'm okay with going to bed and you know it's really not i don't have anything any more insightful for you than that, but it helped me, and that's how I, I'm still a night person, but I get a lot of productivity out of my mornings now, a lot of it.
Starting point is 00:04:53 The thing that you're looking for there. And a chance to work out, a chance to read the scriptures, a chance to spend time with Sharon. I do some writing in the morning. Some of these blogs I've been putting out in the last year, I've been writing those in the morning. My mind's fresh on that kind of thing. I think I'm a little nicer in the mornings. So I'm really not on Twitter in the morning. I wait until I'm mad later in the day to get on Twitter.
Starting point is 00:05:18 So, you know, you just kind of learn that stuff and get in a rhythm with it, and that's what you're looking for. But you do have to, you know, you have to have the time to do the other stuff. kind of learn that stuff and get in a rhythm with it and that's what you're looking for um but you do have to you know you have to have the time to do the other stuff gail is with us in columbus ohio hi gail welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave thanks for taking my call sure um i my husband and i are in baby step number two um we're on track to have my student loans paid off in about 18 months but my sticking point is a car loan where we owe more on the car than what it's worth. And I'm gazelle intense. I'm ready to sell it and unfortunately pay the difference, but my husband is more reserved and very reluctant to pay for
Starting point is 00:05:58 something that we don't physically have. And I was just hoping for some guidance on how to get us on the same page for something like this okay uh well the car aside when he needs to adjust his look on that he has already lost the money he's already lost the money he's already paying for something he didn't get you see what i'm saying yeah and that's it's important to understand that it's important to understand that selling the car the only thing about selling the car is you just admit that you've lost the money but you can kind of continue to be under the illusion that you haven't lost the money as long as you have the car but you've lost the money because the car's lost the value the money's gone so uh he needs to get over that part of it regardless
Starting point is 00:06:46 of what decision you make on whether to keep the car or not that is not a reason to keep the car okay that's just that's just saying i want to pretend instead of i want to face reality and that's not a that's not a good paradigm that's not a good critical thinking skill to make good decisions with now now do we keep the car how much do you owe on the car uh we owe 18.5 on the car okay so 36 000 clears you guys up completely that student loan was 18 right um actually the student loan is at 33 500 oh you said 18 months i'm sorry you did yeah no that's okay okay so we're dealing with $51,000 in debt, and your household income is what? I bring in $55,000 a year, and my husband just made salary at $42,000. So we're coming in about $97,000 a year.
Starting point is 00:07:36 So making $100,000, how fast can you pay off $51,000? You ought to be able to do that in two years. Okay, so it just comes to, it's feasible. $25,000 a year out of $100,000, and you're debt-free in two years. Mm-hmm. Right? Okay. Okay.
Starting point is 00:07:55 And if you can pay the car off in two years, and you love the car, and the total of your vehicles is not more than $50,000, which I'm suspecting it's not, then it's okay to keep the car by the guidelines that we teach. So I would not say Dave Ramsey says sell this car, okay? Okay. But if you guys want to sell it, if you don't like the car, that's a whole other thing. You can sell it for that reason alone, and it gets you out of debt faster. There's nothing wrong with selling it. But in terms of the guidelines we teach, if you want to fight to keep it,
Starting point is 00:08:29 and it's going to take you two years to get out of debt, you know, instead of 14 months or something, then that's okay. But if you don't like the car anyway, and selling it gets you out of debt faster, then that's okay, too. But keeping it because I want to pretend like I haven't lost money, that's not okay. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You know, I hate to see people waste money, but that's exactly what happens when you buy an identity theft plan that guarantees, quote, you won't become a victim. Well, the reality is you can't prevent identity theft plan that guarantees, quote, you won't become a victim. Well, the reality is you can't prevent identity theft.
Starting point is 00:09:07 All these credit monitoring and preventative plans with their fine print guarantees are just a bunch of hype. Our personal information is everywhere and you can't control who gets access to it. Why do you think there's so many data breaches? Thieves steal your personal information and use it for medical ID theft, social security, IRS fraud, and even criminal activity. None of this shows up on your credit report, which makes these plans a waste of money. You need a plan that protects you against all types of ID theft
Starting point is 00:09:34 and takes over all the work if you become a victim, since that is the real nightmare. That's why I only recommend Zander's plan, and I have for years. I have it on my family and all my team members. It's the only plan worth buying. Go to ZanderInsurance.com or call them at 800-356-4282. lauren is with us in cincinnati hey lauren welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave how are you better than deserve. What's up in your world? Well, thanks so much for taking my call. Sure.
Starting point is 00:10:29 My question for you relates to my husband and I being at Baby Step number six, paying the mortgage on our house. Everything else is taken care of, which is a great feeling. Good. But we do know that this is not our forever home. And so our question is, do we go ahead and aggressively attack what we have left on the house? Why not? Or do we kind of also split the difference and save for a down payment as well, knowing
Starting point is 00:11:01 that we will have to simultaneously buy and sell at the same time. Well, I mean, you're going to sell the house when you move, right? Right. And when you sell the house, they give you a check for the money, the mortgage money. When you pay off a mortgage, the money's not gone. It's in the equity of the house. You get it back. Right. off a mortgage the money's not gone it's it's in the equity of the house you get that you get it back right so i guess then our question kind of shifts to and that's definitely where my head is as well when we go to buy though um is a bank going to look at us having all that equity as
Starting point is 00:11:40 they consider underwriting our new mortgage loan i I guess. Like, do we need to have cash? Sure, because you're purchasing the new home simultaneously with the sale of yours, and so you're going to have that cash in your hand. Right. And, you know, when they say what's the source of your $200,000 down payment, it'll be the sale of our $220,000 house or whatever the number is. But, yeah, definitely. Well, that would be great, but I don't think. Yeah, I mean,20,000 house or whatever the number is. But, yeah, definitely. Well, that would be great, but I don't think.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Yeah, I mean, it doesn't take the whatever the number is, but you don't have to have it in a pile of $100 bills in the middle of your kitchen table for it to count. So, no, I would go ahead and pay off your house because we don't know what's going to happen, and the closer your home is to being paid off and then when it is actually paid off, it stabilizes your life. It just adds, even though it's an interim thing for you,
Starting point is 00:12:32 it's not a, like you said, a forever home, that's okay. I'm still going to do it because you might be there longer than you think. You might be there shorter than you think. But it's not a bad rate of return on cash, you know, 4%, 5%, 4%, whatever your mortgage rate is, it's not a bad rate of return. You can't get that in a savings account right now. You can get more than that where you invest it long term, but I don't ever teach people to do that. So, hey, thanks for the call. Erica's with us in Lancaster, California. Hey, Erica, how are you?
Starting point is 00:13:04 Great. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right. Well, first, thank you for your time. But secondly, so we will be completely 100% debt-free by this time next year. Over $100,000 is completely gone. But at that point, we have to prioritize. Either we can buy a home with a VA loan or we can do fertility treatment, which each round costs about $5,000 and there's a 40% to 50% chance of pregnancy per round, which should be our priority at that point. Obviously, paying in cash, no debt. I'd rather have kids in a house
Starting point is 00:13:46 yeah i was hoping you'd say that if i gotta choose i mean and the thing is you don't have to choose it's just a matter which comes first right yeah and that's what it is about is which one should we prioritize and save up for first after our debt is gone i mean um if i were i mean you do whatever you want to do it's a personal choice obviously yeah um but one of the great joys of my life is my family and i've never said that about my house okay the great joy of my life is my house third party it's not it's not it's fair to be emotional because it's family and and you're supposed to be emotional. It's personal finance. Emotion's part of it, right?
Starting point is 00:14:27 But I pick babies over houses every time. Okay? Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you. Stephanie is in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Stephanie, what's up?
Starting point is 00:14:39 Hey, I have an every dollar question. Actually, I have two if you have time for the second one. I'll try. So my first question is this. We just got the car out of the shop. It's a $2,500 repair bill. Ouch. So we have, yeah, that's okay.
Starting point is 00:14:54 When the cars are old, they cost money. So anyway, we have $1,000 in the car fund, and then we have $1,000 in the new carpet fund and $600 in the vacation fund. And we have other funds as well. So there's plenty of money to pay for the car repair. So that's not the question. The question is, how do I track it in every dollar?
Starting point is 00:15:21 Do I zero out the new carpet fund and the vacation fund and put that into the car fund, or do I just leave the car fund in a negative balance and keep the fund of the carpet and the vacation at their rate? Now, I think you've gotten punched, and you're going to use some of the money that was set aside for something else to pay the car. So you're going to zero or reduce some other categories in order to get the car to balance. You can't run anything in the negative.
Starting point is 00:15:58 That's, in a sense, running an overdraft, and we're not going to plan that way because that just gives you the illusion that you still have money for carpet or vacation or whatever it was you were going to do right and that's an illusion because that money's not there so no i'm gonna whatever it is i'm not saying you have to you brought the two categories that you were going to zero i didn't bring those up so if that's what you've chosen to do is to use that money, then just admit it in your every dollar app by zeroing those out, moving that money effectively over to your over to your car fund to be able
Starting point is 00:16:34 to balance out. And that's the beauty of a budget is you're just doing things on purpose. And you're saying, you know, I'm going to say where the money went so that I don't run out of money and I'm not in the hole. And the hole means I've got credit card debt or some kind of debt. And that's how most people live. And the point of doing a budget is to not do that. So, yeah, that's a very good question and a neat clarification, by the way.
Starting point is 00:16:58 Ashley's in Syracuse, New York. Hi, Ashley. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for having me. Sure. What's up? I'm calling because I have a question.
Starting point is 00:17:08 We have a judgment. It was a car judgment where we bought the car and then we gave it back to them. And we owe about $1,500 on it. And it occurs about $2 interest a day. So I was wondering whether we should pay it off when we get our income taxes or if we should keep doing the $200 a month payment. How long ago was the car repoed? It's been a few years, about six years.
Starting point is 00:17:40 Oh, my gosh. This is a six-year-old debt. Yes. Cool. And how much is your tax refund um we're getting about 12 000 okay uh call them up and good wait a minute twelve thousand dollar refund there yeah it's both of our combined okay so you know you need to adjust your W-2s, that that's ridiculous, right?
Starting point is 00:18:11 Okay, let's camp there for a second, then I'll come back to your car, okay? A tax refund of $12,000 means that you have had $1,000 a month too much withheld from your check. Santa Claus does not live in Washington. That is your money you've been giving to the IRS all year long, and now they're giving it back to you with no interest. That's where a $12,000 refund comes from. You do not want to give the IRS $1,000 too much every month. You need to talk to payroll at your workplaces and get your take-home pay adjusted by $1,000 a month so
Starting point is 00:18:46 you don't have this happen anymore. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Okay. Now, back to your car. They will accept somewhere around 20 cents on the dollar. I would call them up and offer them $1,247 and say, I've got $1,247. I just picked an odd amount because that's all I got.
Starting point is 00:19:05 And I'll give you $1,247 to settle this as settlement in full. They'll be blessed to get it. Get the agreement once you negotiate. They'll whine and flop around. You'll have to push on them a little bit. Be tough. Be firm. $1,247 is all you get. If you want that, I'll give it to you today.
Starting point is 00:19:22 But I have to have in writing, in writing, in writing from you that that settles this debt forever and ever in full. Amen. And then I will wire you the money. No, you cannot have electronic access to my checking account under any circumstances. In writing, no electronic access to your checking account. There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees.
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Starting point is 00:20:45 That's puretalkusa.com. Thank you for being with us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Well, you don't have to be some kind of nerdy, math-loving guy with a pocket protector and a calculator holder on your belt to have a good handle on your finances and on everything that's going. Some of the coolest millionaires I know play defense and offense with their money. Offense is the investments that you're making money with. Defense is when you're covering for when things don't go well with things like a will and things like insurance and that kind of stuff. We want to help you make sure you're doing the stuff that everyday millionaires do. And so we have the five-minute coverage checkup.
Starting point is 00:22:01 It takes five minutes for you to make sure you're playing defense well. And it's just a coverage checkup takes five minutes for you to make sure you're playing defense well and it's all just a coverage checkup it's insurance and wills and that kind of stuff we're going to go through a checklist with you and show you in five minutes if you're missing a piece of armor for your defense because you got to have all your armor if you're going to go into battle right so five minutes for our coverage checkup our five minute coverage checkup all you do to get this it's completely free get your phone out it's completely free text the word checkup to 33 789 checkup to 33 789 822-33-789. Or you can go to DaveRamsey.com slash checkup. Or type in checkup in our search bar at DaveRamsey.com.
Starting point is 00:22:55 Either way, you can find it. It takes five minutes. It's completely free. Caitlin is in Albany, New York. Hi, Caitlin. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I had a question.
Starting point is 00:23:09 My husband and I have been obsessively listening to you for about a month. We're currently on Baby Step 2, and we don't have much left. We plan on paying off our truck next month. Yay! Good job! Thank you.
Starting point is 00:23:26 And then that would be no more car payments, and we would just be left with my student loan. My student loan is about $14,000, and my husband currently in his Roth, what he's been saving before we started listening to you, has about $15,000. So I was wondering if we should use that, pay off the student loan,
Starting point is 00:23:45 be debt-free, and start the Roth from scratch, or if we should just leave that be and not touch it. I don't touch it. The only time I cash out retirement is to avoid a bankruptcy or a foreclosure. You're nowhere near that. You're doing so good. What's your household income? We take home about $90,000.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Okay. So you're going to knock this $14 take home about $90. Okay. So you're going to knock this $14 out so fast. Yeah. I just didn't know if we should just get it over with and kind of rip the Band-Aid off. I like your style. You're getting after it. But, no, I'm not going to cash out retirement. Because that $14 is going to grow tax-free for the rest of your young life,
Starting point is 00:24:21 and you are going to have so much money just because of this one decision in that account. So I'm going to let that money grow and leave it alone. Now, you're not adding anything to retirement while you're doing this, right? No. No, we stopped that. Good. You're right on track. You're doing everything you're supposed to do.
Starting point is 00:24:36 Let's leave your Roth alone and just knock that 14 out. I love your gazelle intensity. You're completely focused. But I never tell people to cash out retirement unless it's to avoid foreclosure or bankruptcy. And you're a long ways from that. You're doing good, Rockstar. Well done. Ian is with us in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Starting point is 00:24:54 Hi, Ian. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm 22 years old.
Starting point is 00:25:03 I work at Starbucks. I've had pretty much every entry-level job you can think of, and I'm ready to start a career. I'm very interested in web development and software engineering, but I don't want to bury myself in debt in exchange for a degree. As an alternative, I've found a school that's completely online, and they are zero up front for tuition, and they help me network to find a job and prepare for the interview and everything like that. But once they find me a job, I have to sign an income share agreement for 17% of my salary for two years. Now, I've asked everyone in my life that, like, I consider a mentor or anyone I can go to for advice. They've never heard of an income share agreement, much less signed one. So I just want to know what I would be getting into and if there are any, like, traps or pitfalls
Starting point is 00:25:49 where I actually come out of it worse than going into it. Well, the obvious math is the pitfall, and that is that if you've got a job making $200,000, then you've overpaid for some programming school. Right. Well, there's a $30,000 maximum total repayment, but, I mean, that is still. All right. That's not too bad, really.
Starting point is 00:26:08 I mean, you know, these agreements, this process is fairly new. And it's kind of come on the scene as a reaction to people overpaying for college degrees. Right. College has never been something I could even dream of affording, and I don't want to go into debt. It's just how I grew up. Well, yeah, but you don't need college to be a programmer. Right.
Starting point is 00:26:36 So really, we don't need college. What we do need is code school. You know, that's what you need. And to learn how to do coding and to get started and to make some money coding as and to get started and to make some money coding as an entry level um and decide to move up so what you're wanting to do is literally do right lines of code correct okay all right and you've never done this before at all not at all i have a high school education other than that i've just been working at you know
Starting point is 00:27:02 everything you can think of gas stations retail stuff like that okay i don't really have any formal education beyond my high school okay um what does the agreement say if you take a job in a different field uh well if they the at the end of the it's's a 30 week program, um, and I would be going full time. So there's, there's literally, and there's homework and everything like that. There's literally no time to also have a full-time job while I'm going to the school. So I'd have to move back into my parents, which I'm okay with. But, um, the thing is if the job that they, if I don't accept a job that they helped find me, I don't pay for it that's my understanding i've spoken with their administration and everything i've emailed them back and forth because they're interested in
Starting point is 00:27:48 having me but if i don't take the job that they help me get i'm not agreeing to anything oh so it's not understanding so if you got a job coding even but it wasn't when they line up then um then and what are they saying you're going to make after 30 weeks? They want to help me find a job making at least 50 grand a year. Yeah, I was going to say 70. Okay. That's what you ought to be making in the Seattle market, doing what we're talking about here.
Starting point is 00:28:17 So, yeah, code school's not a bad thing. So, I don't have any problem with this deal. The only thing I want to do is comb through it with a fine-tooth comb and make sure there's no hooks in it that we're not seeing when you actually see the written contract, okay? And so if it says they don't get you the job, you owe nothing. If it says 17% of your income for for the first two years is that what you told me that's correct and if it says maximum of 30 000 i'm in i'm in because i i think that i
Starting point is 00:28:54 think you can get in get your foot in the door and then you can learn coding and you need to keep learning you understand that this is just just gets you started is all right this is not set you up where you never do any more education for the next 10 years. You just are beginning to learn. You've just, all this is, this is just your key to, this is your entry code to get in the building is all. Right. That's what I'm looking for. I've always grown up in southern rural areas where it's unheard of to be a software engineer. So I know that it's this world that I'm really interested in, but it's like I've never been there before.
Starting point is 00:29:32 I've never grown up in a big city where it's commonplace to have that job. So there's really no one I can reach out and talk to. All I want is a foot in the door. Yeah. Okay. I said Seattle. You're in Biloxi. I just looked down.
Starting point is 00:29:43 I don't know where I got Seattle. That's right. Okay. And, yeah, 50 might be true in Mississippi. I said Seattle. You're in Biloxi. I just looked down. I don't know where I got Seattle. Okay. That's right. And, yeah, 50 might be true in Mississippi. Okay. Yeah, as long as you commit to continue a lifetime of continual learning and growth in your field past this, and this is your entry fee, so to speak, into that world,
Starting point is 00:30:08 and you can lock down all of the things that we're verbally getting. Verbal is not okay. It's got to all be in writing exactly very clearly. Then I probably would do this deal. I kind of like it. Go get them, man. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Deuteronomy 31.6 Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear or be afraid of them.
Starting point is 00:30:59 For the Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. James Baldwin said, Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. Open phones this hour at 888-825-225. So this show is listened to on 607 radio stations by 9.8 million people. And all of you 9.8 million people that listen to this show pay nothing to listen to the show. It's free. And we're happy to do that for you.
Starting point is 00:31:52 Five and a half million people listen on the podcast every day. Number five podcast in the world. And you pay nothing to listen on the podcast. And we are thrilled that you're there. Thank you for listening to us. I hope this information is a blessing. I hope we're helping you. I hope we're inspiring you to change your life.
Starting point is 00:32:24 Millions and millions of you watch us live every day on YouTube. There's a live YouTube feed of this show. And you pay nothing. It's completely free. And somewhere around 812 years' worth of YouTube videos were downloaded last year. That's how many minutes of Dave Ramsey was watched on YouTube last year. People doing debt-free screams, me teaching, me ranting, me showing you how to get out of debt, me helping you when you're struggling, and it's completely free.
Starting point is 00:32:58 And we're so glad we can help you. We appreciate that. I speak in churches all over America. I don't charge them a dime when i do that it's completely free to attend church by the way and we love it when you come out and i get to meet you and see you there it's completely free every dollar app is completely free and we do all of this stuff um because we love helping people we do charge for some of our materials when we sell you a book we charge for the book or when you want to go to one of our classes but when you go to financial peace university you're going to learn a few things that i don't cover here because i don't have time in this shorter format to cover them like i do in a
Starting point is 00:33:44 long-term format. An hour-long class teaching, I can go into more detail than I can on a 10-minute radio segment. But basically, you're not going to really go, wow, I've never heard Dave do any of that. If you watch every YouTube out there for free, you probably have seen most of the stuff I do in financial peace university but when you go to the class it's just a concentrated process and it's a very progressive iterative process and we charge a whole hundred dollars for that wow and we charge twenty dollars for our, which most people charge $30 for books. Wow. So I'm always just flabbergasted when I read where Dave Ramsey is greedy and the Ramsey organization is taking advantage of poor people
Starting point is 00:34:38 because the only way to get access to our materials is to pay $100. If you make a statement like that, let me tell you what you are. You're stupid. Because this stuff is everywhere for free. Everywhere. I can't believe you charge $49 to come to hear you speak somewhere. Well, of course I do. I have 25 or 30 people that have been working on this for six months.
Starting point is 00:35:03 They all have to be paid and their kids have to be eating and i'm just amazed at how some of you people just bitch and moan about anything so there's plenty of this stuff that's out there for free and if you don't want to buy a single thing we sell i'm perfectly okay with that i'm'm fine with that. But it is a complete lie to say that to get access to our materials, you have to give me $100. That's a complete lie. It's just not true. So this is how you get blocked on Twitter. All right.
Starting point is 00:35:44 Jake is up. Jake's in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jake is up. Jake's in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Jake. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help?
Starting point is 00:35:53 So my question is, so I don't have any other debt but my house, and I'm trying to figure out how much retirement should count towards the 15%. I actually work for a company that falls under the Railroad Retirement Act. Ah. Takes out 4.9% more than Social Security, in addition to Social Security, which I don't have any control over. Right. Just by working here.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Right. It's taken out of my check. Are they not exempt from Social Security? It's part of Social Security. So Social Security is normal 6.2. This is in addition to 4.9. So I don't fall under the Social Security Act. Yeah, that's right.
Starting point is 00:36:39 It's not really Social Security. It's what the equivalent of Social Security plus four, right? But it's all going into a non-Social Security thing. Right. Okay, I'm with you. Right. So you've got about 10% coming out of your check going into railroad retirement. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:59 And then I have another 13.1 that the company matches. So what do I count towards my 15%? Because I'm also contributing 3% to a Roth 401k. Good. Okay. Well, I mean, you can do whatever you want. The point of 15% is not that the exact number of 15 is the exact number that equates to wealth. Okay?
Starting point is 00:37:22 The point is that's a lot. 15% is a lot. That's a big chunk of your income. You're setting aside of your money going towards retirement, right? And so that's the point of it. And, of course, the normative thing that you're not doing is that that's going into a 401K and Roth IRAs and that kind of thing that you completely control.
Starting point is 00:37:44 With railroad retirement, you don't completely control it. Now, one thing we never do is we don't count match because that's not your money. So the match doesn't enter into it. Okay? You are going to put 15% in. So the only thing that's up in the air in your question then is how much of this railroad retirement that you don't control what happens with it or how stable it is or anything else, how much of that do you count, that 10%, towards your 15?
Starting point is 00:38:08 Okay? Sometimes people have other things. It's like a teacher's retirement. It's a mandatory withdrawal and that kind of thing. Very similar to yours, except they're not exempt from Social Security like you guys are. It's very unique in your industry to be exempt. So given that you don't have Social Security, that's what this means. You do not have that at retirement. I fall under real retirement.
Starting point is 00:38:37 I know. You're not going to get Social Security. And other people are, and I'm not counting that in their 15%. I'm probably not gonna count this but you can do whatever you want to do if you want to count part of it and say i'm gonna do 10 more so that means i'm kind of like counting the railroad part at half right that would probably that'd probably be okay if you want to do that um but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a bad thing to have all of the railroad plus the match plus you had a big pile of money in your 401k right right no that's a bad thing so you can't
Starting point is 00:39:14 it's like how wealthy do i want to be kind of a question but um i i i don't i might count half of it and say i'm going to put 15 of my money in addition to what the railroad takes out of my check and um that's kind of like you're going to do social security but you're going to do 15 above social security it's about the same in this case roughly i mean using rough numbers but yeah that's probably about what i would do that's the minimum i would do. I would do 10% more than the railroad, at least. And that's counting half of the railroad towards it. It wouldn't hurt to move over time towards maxing out everything. But let's get your house paid off at some point in this equation,
Starting point is 00:40:03 and then we can worry about taking advantage of all of it, which would be even more fun. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to James Childs and Kelly Daniels in the booth. They make the show happen. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,
Starting point is 00:40:22 and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.

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